CALIFORNIA TRADE JUSTICE COALITION Presidential Candidate Questionnaire Candidate Name: Bernie Sanders Campaign Office Address: ________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Campaign Contact: ______________________________________________________ Contact Phone: _________________________________________________________ Email: ________________________________________________________________ The California Trade Justice Coalition (CTJC) is an alliance of labor, environmental, public health, immigrant rights and human rights organizations — all committed to building a strong California economy that works for all. CTJC’s member organizations include the Alliance for Democracy, Association of Western Pulp & Paper Workers, California Labor Federation, California Nurses Association, Communications Workers of America District 9, Food & Water Watch, Friends of the Earth, Global Exchange, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 595, International Longshore & Warehouse Union Southern California District Council, Local Clean Energy Alliance, Napa/Solano Central Labor Council, Rooted in Resilience, Sacramento Central Labor Council, Sierra Club San Francisco Bay Chapter and United Steelworkers District 12. We are interested in knowing what you think about a variety of issues regarding international trade policy. Answers to the following questions will be used to educate voters, highlight trade issues and create voter guides. Please return your completed questionnaire to Will Wiltschko by emailing [email protected] or calling (831) 917-7997. Views on Trade Agreement Provisions 1. LABOR RIGHTS: If elected, would you insist that new and renegotiated trade ​ agreements include measures requiring countries to adopt, maintain and implement the International Labor Organization’s core conventions and to include swift and certain enforcement mechanisms for alleged violations of labor rights? Please mark one: [ ✓ ] YES [ ] NO ​ ​ Additional Comments: In 2016, Trump promised he would substantially reduce the trade deficit, stop the outsourcing of American jobs, and rip up NAFTA. He lied about all three. Since Trump has been in office, our trade deficit has broken records. He has given out over $50 billion in government contracts to companies that are shipping jobs overseas. He passed tax cuts that reward companies for offshoring even more jobs. And now more than 170,000 American jobs have been shipped overseas under his watch and the manufacturing sector is in a recession. We need a president who will actually fight for American workers, keep their promises, and stand up to the giant corporations who close down plants and send jobs overseas in a destructive race to the bottom. As president, Bernie will renegotiate Trump’s NAFTA immediately upon taking office. The NAFTA 2.0 that Trump signed is an absolute disaster. In addition to doing nothing to stop the offshoring of jobs, the deal is a giveaway to the fossil fuel industry at a time when climate change threatens our planet. Bernie will rewrite our trade agreements to include strong and swift enforcement mechanisms to raise the wages of workers, to prevent corporations from outsourcing American jobs, to improve the environment and combat climate change, and to end the global race to the bottom and lift living standards in the U.S. and throughout the world. 2. OUTSOURCING: Would you require trade agreements include measures specifically ​ designed to combat outsourcing across sectors, including in aerospace, autos, food processing, call centers and more? Please mark one: [ ✓ ] YES [ ] NO ​ ​ Additional Comments: We need a new trade policy that creates decent-paying jobs in America and ends the race to the bottom. Corporate America cannot continue to throw American workers out on the street while they outsource our jobs and enjoy record-breaking profits. Bernie will fundamentally rewrite our trade agreements to stop the outsourcing of American jobs. On day one of Bernie’s presidency, his Administration will deny federal contracts to companies that pay poverty wages, outsource jobs overseas, engage in union busting, deny good benefits, and pay CEOs outrageous compensation packages. Bernie also developed the Outsourcing Prevention Act to prevent companies that outsource jobs from receiving federal contracts, tax breaks, grants or loans; claw back federal benefits from companies that outsource jobs; establish an outsourcing tax on companies that move U.S. jobs offshore; and prohibit executives from profiting off of the outsourcing of U.S. jobs. 3. PUBLIC PROCUREMENT: Would you insist that trade agreements remove all ​ limitations on the adoption, maintenance and application of strong “Buy American,” “Buy Local” and “Buy Green” government procurement preferences by the U.S. federal government, states and municipalities? Please mark one: [ ✓ ] YES [ ] NO ​ ​ Additional Comments: A Bernie Sanders administration will expand “Buy American,” “Buy Local,” “Buy Green,” and other government policies that will increase jobs in the U.S. 4. CURRENCY: Would you require trade agreements to include enforceable disciplines ​ against currency manipulation and misalignment? Please mark one: [ ✓ ] YES [ ] NO ​ ​ Additional Comments: A Bernie Sanders administration will add to the core text of every U.S. trade agreement, enforceable rules against currency manipulation and misalignment, which allows countries to unfairly dump their products in this country and makes our exports more expensive abroad. 5. CLIMATE CRISIS: Would you require trade agreements to include binding, ​ easily-enforced standards to reduce climate pollution, as well as clear protections for climate and other environmental policies? Please mark one: [ ✓ ] YES [ ] NO ​ ​ Additional Comments: Bernie will renegotiate disastrous trade deals to protect the environment. Not only have agreements like NAFTA and Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China outsourced millions of American jobs, they have allowed corporations to outsource their pollution. Trade deals have been written in secret by billion-dollar companies to give polluters special handouts and protections, as well as the right to sue governments that pursue stronger environmental protections. Under a Sanders Administration, this will end. Trade deals will be renegotiated to ensure strong and binding climate standards. 6. MEDICINE: Would you oppose trade agreements that delay access to affordable, ​ generic medications by providing drug firms extended monopoly rights — such as requirements that signatory countries lock-in lengthy patent terms, provide data or marketing exclusivity, enforce trade secrets for pharmaceutical companies and/or broaden the scope of patentability? Please mark one: [ ✓ ] YES [ ] NO ​ ​ Additional Comments: Bernie has long fought to eliminate rules in our trade deals that increase the cost of medicines. Any trade deal Bernie signs will lower the cost of prescription drugs. 7. CONSUMER SAFETY: Would you insist that trade agreements only allow imported ​ foods, toys and other products to enter the United States if they actually meet U.S. safety standards? Please mark one: [ ✓ ] YES [ ] NO ​ ​ Additional Comments: We cannot allow trade deals to allow corporations to get around U.S. safety standards. Bernie believes that trade deals must protect the safety of American consumers. We cannot allow food, toys and other products to enter the United States that do not meet U.S. safety standards. 8. COUNTRY-OF-ORIGIN LABELING: Would you require trade agreements to ​ explicitly allow for the restoration of the Country-of-Origin (COOL) meat-labeling program passed by the U.S. Congress and affirmed by U.S. courts, but struck down by the World Trade Organization (WTO)? Please mark one: [ ✓ ] YES [ ] NO ​ ​ Additional Comments: One of the reasons that Bernie opposed Trump’s NAFTA is because it did not require strong country-of-origin labeling. As President, Bernie will rewrite our trade deals to include strong country of origin labeling. His administration will strongly enforce country-of-origin-labeling so companies cannot import foreign meat for slaughter, passing it off as American grown to undercut domestic producers. Unfair trade policy has let foreign countries overturn our country-of-origin-labeling laws even though 90 percent of the American people support country-of-origin labeling. We must respect the will of the people and allow them to know where their food is coming from and protect American workers with strong COOL enforcement. 9. ISDS: Would you insist that trade agreements eliminate investor-state dispute ​ settlement (ISDS) and any similar mechanism that allows corporations to challenge U.S. laws, regulations, court decisions and other government actions in extrajudicial tribunals that are empowered to award taxpayer compensation for violations of investors’ trade agreement rights? Please mark one: [ ✓ ] YES [ ] NO ​ ​ Additional Comments: As President, Bernie will eliminate the disastrous Investor State Dispute Settlement system that allows corporations to sue governments that pass laws to protect workers, consumers and the environment in front of an unelected international tribunal. Trump’s NAFTA retains the ISDS system in Mexico for oil, gas and telecom giants to settle disputes in corporate-friendly tribunals. Bernie will renegotiate this deal immediately upon taking office. Views on Trade Policymaking Procedures 10. FAST TRACK: Would you oppose efforts to reestablish “Fast